[TUHS] Origins of the frame buffer device

[Kenneth Goodwin]

The NYIT setup had multiple Barcovision color CRT monitors connected to the
frame buffers via multiple coax video cables

I presume through some sort of video switch hardware.

8 bits per pixel. (Unsigned char)
The numbers stored in the pixel frame buffer memory were used to index a
color map that held the actual RGB or HSV values for the actual color.

Cycling the color map array values was a cheap animation trick that Alex
Schure had a particular fondness for.

On Sun, Mar 5, 2023, 10:02 AM Paul Ruizendaal via TUHS <tuhs at tuhs.org>
wrote:

> I am confused on the history of the frame buffer device.
>
> On Linux, it seems that /dev/fbdev originated in 1999 from work done by
> Martin Schaller and  Geert Uytterhoeven (and some input from Fabrice
> Bellard?).
>
> However, it would seem at first glance that early SunOS also had a frame
> buffer device (/dev/cgoneX. /dev/bwoneX, etc.) which was similar in nature
> (a character device that could be mmap’ed to give access to the hardware
> frame buffer, and ioctl’s to probe and configure the hardware). Is that
> correct, or were these entirely different in nature?
>
> Paul
>
>
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